A Nightmare to Start
by TheMadKatter13
Summary: One night, Elena has a nightmare that only Damon seems to be able to help her cope with. Damon/Elena. Post 2x09/Pre 2x20 CU.


**A Nightmare to Start **

**by TheMadKatter13 **

**SUMMARY~One night, Elena has a nightmare that only Damon seems to be able to help her cope with. Damon/Elena. Post 2x09/Pre 2x20 CU. **

**DISCLAIMER~The rights to The Vampire Diaries reside with LJ Smith & CW and I receive no financial gain from the writing of this story. **

**AN~I'm trying to remember where I got this idea from but I can't. I just thought of it and kept thinking on it.**

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><p>Damon and Caroline were arguing. Elena wasn't sure what about because, for some reason, she couldn't hear them, even though she was just a few feet away, but it was obvious with their exaggerated speaking and arm motions. She tried to call out to them but found that no noise came out, even when she tried to shout. It felt like she was in a silent film, but she was not having any fun. Neither of her friends seemed to notice her and so she tried to move, tried to wave, but she found that she was frozen, her feet stuck to the ground and her arms to her sides. The only thing she could move was her eyes and her lips, not that the latter produced any sound.<p>

A movement to her left attracted her eyes and a dark figure, a walking shadow, approached her and she felt the intense need to move away from the creature. She tried and tried but she still couldn't move and as panic set in, she tried calling frantically to her friends.

_'Damon!'_ she called in her mind since her mouth still wouldn't work. The shadow got closer and her panic continued to rise.

_'Damon, Damon, Damon!'_ Her friends continued to argue but they only seemed to get further and further from her even though the only one moving was the shadow. And it was moving closer. Shadow hands began to rise towards her head and her panic skyrocketed.

_'Damon!'_ Fingers emerged from the shadow and she could feel them in her head, like worms. The sensation was horrific, invasive, painful. She felt like she was being raped, and the fingers only dug deeper.

_'DAMON!'_

She awoke with a scream of his name on her lips, intersected with sobs, her cheeks wet from her tears. A hand touched her and she shrieked, scrambling from the bed, her feet catching in the edge of the blanket and she hit the floor with a thud. Elena barely noticed, the invasive feeling in her head not having diminished with her returned consciousness. She fell against a wall and then to the floor, sobbing, cradling her head, unable to do anything but rock herself and wish the feeling in her brain would go away.

~X~

Elena was mumbling something in her sleep and after a moment, Stefan realized it was his brother's name spilling repeatedly from her lips. His heart clenched painfully in his chest. Everything in their relationship was going great as far as he knew, even with his brother's and his girlfriend's own growing relationship, whatever it was, and as much as he didn't trust Damon, he trusted Elena to not be like Katherine, to keep it a friendship. But Damon had a way of charming his way into anything. And anyone. Including Elena and her dreams. He wondered what they had been doing behind his back. Before the thought and its implications could sink in, Elena screamed his name and her upper body sprang from the bed. Startled, he realized it was a scream of terror, not pleasure and he instantly regretted the line of thought his mind first went to. Reflexively, he reached out to grab her arm, to comfort her, and she shrieked, flying from the bed, tripping on the blankets as she did, her hands, elbows, and knees smashing into the floor, but she didn't seem to notice as she scrabbled into the corner of the room. He watched, frozen in his surprise, as she broke into sobs, clutching her head as if she had a migraine. She continued to sob and rock, her knees drawn up to her chest and pressed tight against the hands that were already pressed to her skull.

Damon had to have done something to her. That was the only explanation for that scream she had let loose and for him being in her dreams. He ripped open his door, ready to go confront his brother, beat him down, stake him if needed, but his brother was already standing outside his door, reaching for the handle. Customary black jeans were hanging low and open, as if he'd barely had time to put them on, privates thankfully all tucked away. A blonde girl was standing at the end of the hall outside his brother's room, a blanket dangling from her grip and covering her breasts, looking very much like a good time had just been interrupted.

"Damon? Where the hell are you going?" she cried after him. Stefan had almost never seen such a cold look on his brother's face as he turned back towards the sorority girl.

"Forget everything about me and this place and return to your dorm." The strength of his panic and worry for Elena's well-being was so strong he only needed to command-compel the girl once before her eyes dilated and she turned and left. Damon turned back to his brother's room, ignoring the looks he was getting from accusatory hazel eyes. He had been in the middle of adding another co-ed to his bed post when he heard Elena mumble his name. At first, he had believed she was having an erotic dream about him, and the thought had turned him on more than anything else had. The girl below him had seemed to think his increased attraction was because of her and as her thinking that doubled her lackluster efforts, he hadn't bothered to correct the thought. Just a few seconds later though, she screamed and he went soft in an instant, shooting from the bed and nearly ripping his jeans as he pulled them on as fast as possible, not even bothering to close them in his haste to reach _her_.

He paused upon entering the room, searching for her form, a feeling almost like fright coming over him when he found her huddled in a corner, curled in on herself, sobbing. He was at her side in a second, reaching for her but she flinched away from him, scrambling to another corner. He looked over at Stefan for a moment before he walked over to her again, this time only crouching down on the balls of his feet besides her, making sure nothing of his brushed against anything of hers.

"Elena?" he called as softly as he could. She began to mutter, barely discernible between sobs.

"Can't hear...worms in my head...he can't hear...Damon...help...hurts...hurts...help..." He frowned at her words.

"Elena, I'm right here. I can hear you," he tried to reassure her. Her head started to shake.

"No, can't hear me...shadow hands, shadow fingers in my brain," she continued to mumble. He took a chance and reached out to touch a piece of hair that was dangling on her shoulder. He avoided her skin, merely lifting the thin lock of hair from her as she twitched and he tugged ever-so-lightly.

"I'm here. See?" he said softly. Her knees and hands fell away from the side of her head to under her chin, her face shielded from his view by a curtain of straight brown hair. He shifted slightly, silently, so that he was facing her. His hands rose, slowly, cautiously, sliding under her hair to take her face in his hands. She twitched again, violently this time, but she didn't try to flee. He raised her face until her eyes met his. "You're safe," he breathed. Elena stared at him for just a few seconds before she let out a massive sob and launched herself at him.

"Damon!" Surprised would have been an understatement but he caught her regardless, loosing none of his balance as he wrapped his arms around her back, folding her into his embrace, her own arms around his neck as she continued to cry against his bare chest. He stroked her back soothingly, making gentle, soothing sounds as he did, muttering promises of protection and safety. He could feel waves of jealousy and aggravation rolling off his brother from where he still stood in the doorway but his brother's feelings weren't important right now. Neither were his. Only Elena's.

"Tell me what's wrong, Elena," he encouraged. She shook her head and clung tighter, her tears now silent but showing no signs of stopping as she trembled. If he had been human, her embrace would have been painful. Not for the first time, she needed him to be more than human, and not for the first time, he was glad he could be that for her. "C'mon, princess. I need to know what's wrong so I can fix it for you," he whispered in her ear, his hands not having ceased their soothing circles.

"My dream," she croaked. "You were in my dream. You were talking with Caroline but you couldn't hear me." She let out a little sob. "You couldn't hear me," she whispered. She began to cry again and it was another few moments before she was calm enough to talk. "And this...thing was coming at me. A shadow. I couldn't move. I tried to call for you but you just kept moving away. I couldn't talk. It put...it put its fingers in my brain. I can still feel them, wriggling around. It's like little worms in my head. It hurts, Damon. It hurts so bad." She broke down in sobs again, her grip on him tightening once more. He sighed and let an arm drop from her back to slide under her knees. He scooped her up and then he sat down in a chair, cradling her in his lap.

He looked over at Stefan, already knowing what needed to be done. His little brother didn't look pleased, his arms crossed defensively over his chest, but he nodded his ascent. Stefan's 'veggie' diet wouldn't allow him to do what needed to be done, at least not properly if he could at all, and Damon couldn't help but feel ecstatic about what he was about to do, though he did not let it show. He had already noticed Elena's nifty little vervain necklace was missing, something that he would need to ask about later. Its removal was what had allowed someone into her mind, but it would allow him into her mind as well.

"Elena." Her cries slowed and then, slowly, her face lifted from his chest and she blinked up at him from watery, wide doe eyes and his heart clenched. Every time she looked at him, especially when she did it like that, he fell just a little further in love with her. "I can fix this," he told her tapping her forehead once. "If you trust me, I can fix this. Will you let me?" She blinked at him for a moment, and then nodded.

"I trust you, Damon," she whispered. "Just, please, get it out of my head." He nodded back at her before fixing his eyes deep into hers. "Sleep," he compelled. Her head fell back and he adjusted her to be comfortable before he closed his own eyes, throwing himself into her mind. He found himself facing Caroline in a silent shout-off. A look to his left found Elena, staring at them, mouth moving, frantically but without sound. A shadow creature that walked like a person emerged from somewhere behind Caroline, who was still shouting silently at him as if she hadn't noticed his inattention, and it approached Elena who, by this point, was frantically mouthing only one thing: Damon. Her eyes were wide as the thing raised his hands towards her and Damon went into action, unwilling to let this thing touch her a second time.

He tackled the thing to the ground and they rolled. Damon used his momentum to plant his feet against what seemed like a stomach and shoved with all his strength. The creature went flying back into the darkness and he shot to his feet again, wrapping his arms around the girl and shifting the scenery around them. Seconds later, they were alone in Elena's bedroom and Damon gathered her to him to sit them on the bed. He positioned her to face him an slowly ran his fingers through her hair, soothing it back from her face. He smiled gently at her before sinking his own fingers into her mind, brushing, soothing away all dark remnants that he could find until her beautiful mind shone bright and untainted once more. Task completed, he withdrew his fingers and she fell forward into him, sighing in relief.

"Thank you," she cried. "Thank you, Damon." He gathered her into his arms, pressing his lips to her forehead.

"Anything for you, princess," he murmured against her skin. He had said it with lightheartedly but for the moment, he couldn't think of anything he took more seriously. He would do anything for Elena. He pulled back to look at her, raising a hand to let his fingertips trail across her forehead, over her temple, down her cheek, and across her jaw, his thumb lightly tracing her plump lower lip. Her eyes widened and her breath quickened but she didn't move. He lowered his head to press his lips against her quickening pulse and she gasped, her head falling back to expose more of her throat to him and Damon nearly purred in pleasure at the movement. His lips moved up the smooth column of her neck, blood rising wherever they touched. Finally, they moved over her jawline to trace lightly along her own lips. Before she could respond to the action, he pulled himself from her mind and found them in the same place he had been when he closed his eyes. Elena opened her own eyes a few minutes later, but Stefan had already taken her back into his own arms and across the room to sit on his bed.

"Are you ok?" Saint Stefan asked, smoothing her hair back from face.

"Yeah. I'm...I'm great. Damon," she cleared her throat, refusing to look at her saviour, the one sitting alone in a chair on the other side of the room, much farther from her than she wanted, "Damon fixed everything."

FIN

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><p><strong>Well, here it is. A cute little fluff moment between our favourite pair. I'm sorry but it definitely feels a little OOC, and if it does to you too, I apologize. And if you haven't been able to guess by the time frame given in the summary, the shadow is a fear of a certain impending doom. And while the ending is meant to be an indication of a start of something new, I will NOT be doing a continuation. <strong>

**Also, out of all the pet nicknames that Damon has given Elena in any fanfiction, because we all know he doesn't use them in the show, 'princess' is my favourite-I think it would be what he would use in the show if the writers were to add a nickname thing. **


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